Iowahttp://www.pfaw.org/
Wed, 25 Feb 2015 11:40:22 -0500Wed, 25 Feb 2015 11:40:22 -0500Iowa Radio Host: Jeb Bush Gave Conservatives 'A Middle Finger' By Hiring Gay Spokesmanhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/iowa-radio-host-jeb-bush-gave-conservatives-middle-finger-hiring-gay-spokesman
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<p>Every week, Iowa-based radio host Steve Deace gets together with Bob Vander Plaats, head of the influential Iowa social conservative group The Family Leader and leader of Mike Huckabee&rsquo;s 2008 campaign in the state, to discuss potential GOP presidential candidates. This week, they spent a good part of their segment <a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-02-23-15/">discussing</a> Jeb Bush&rsquo;s decision to hire openly gay GOP operative Tim Miller as his spokesman. Unsurprisingly, neither was impressed.</p>
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<p>Deace read Vander Plaats a series of &ldquo;red flags&rdquo; from Miller&rsquo;s social media accounts, including a <a href="http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2015/02/i-kind-of-love-the-pro-gay-snarkiness-of-jeb-bushs-new-communications-director-timodc.html"> tweet critical of the Iowa Family Policy Center </a> , a group affiliated with Vander Plaats, and notices on Facebook that he had attended events such events as &ldquo;Sugar Tit: A Dirty Polaroid-Style New Year&rsquo;s Eve&rdquo; and &ldquo;By Gays: All City Happy Hour.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As Deace read the litany of posts, cohost Robert Rees said, &ldquo;I feel very uncomfortable&rdquo; and Vander Plaats agreed, accusing Miller of &ldquo;lampooning the base of the very party he claims to serve.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s one thing to say, you know what, I really don&rsquo;t want the base of the party,&rdquo; Vander Plaats said of Bush. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s another thing to actively employ people who are going after the base of the party, intentionally going after the base of the party. This would be a sure way to tell your establishment friends, this is how you lose a general election against Hillary, is you make the base go home.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Deace agreed that Bush&rsquo;s hiring of Miller was &ldquo;a middle finger&rdquo; to social conservative activists. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s not even substantive disagreement, that&rsquo;s just someone giving you the finger,&rdquo; he said.</p>
Miranda BlueAnti-GayBob Vander PlaatsC4Equality For AllFloridaIowaJeb BushSteve DeaceThe Family LeaderFighting the Right51016Wed, 25 Feb 2015 11:40:22 -0500IowaBrian Brown: Marriage Equality, Like Slavery And Segregation, 'Cannot Stand'http://www.pfaw.org/content/brian-brown-marriage-equality-slavery-and-segregation-cannot-stand
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<p>National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown joined Iowa Republican National Committee member Tamara Scott on her radio program last week, where the two <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ks2KjlL3mY">discussed</a> the upcoming Supreme Court decision on marriage equality.</p>
<p>Brown told Scott that a pro-equality decision would be &ldquo;illegitimate&rdquo; and anti-LGBT groups would have to emulate the anti-choice movement after Roe and &ldquo;build a movement that continues to stand and proclaim the truth.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He compared a potential marriage equality decision to infamous Supreme Court rulings upholding the Fugitive Slave Act, the prohibition on citizenship for African Americans, and school desegregation.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It may be a generation or two down the line, but this lie about what it means to be a human being cannot stand. It cannot stand,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And just because the Supreme Court says it&rsquo;s so, it doesn&rsquo;t make it so. The Supreme Court has had horrible decisions in the past, horrible decisions like the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, the Fugitive Slave Act, Roe v. Wade. Just because the Supreme Court said it was so didn&rsquo;t make it so, and there was an obligation for people living in those times to stand up and say &lsquo;no this is wrong&rsquo; and to fight with every ounce of their being for the truth.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He added that the movement would have to contend with &ldquo;some weakness from Republican leaders on the marriage issue.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>Earlier in the interview, Scott asked Brown about the decision to approve hormone therapy for Chelsea Manning, which Scott joked was part of a &ldquo;witness protection program.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Well, I don&rsquo;t know about that, but I do know that once you redefine what it means, or attempt to redefine what it means to be a man and a woman, then this clearly is the next step,&rdquo; Brown responded. &ldquo;And I don&rsquo;t think people, at times we may not think deeply about what we&rsquo;re being asked to accept, especially on the issue of same-sex marriage, but what we&rsquo;re essentially being asked to accept is the very deconstruction of what it means to be a mother and father, husband and wife, and what it means to be a human being.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;And once you go down this road of acting as if the biological reality of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives doesn&rsquo;t matter, it doesn&rsquo;t exist, then the next step is to say that gender itself is a construct. And we&rsquo;re seeing that across the country, the next step on quote-unquote &lsquo;transgender rights,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>He added that transgender rights measures would have "profound consequences" that are being seen "across the country."</p>
<p align="center"><iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/192672742&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false"></iframe>Miranda BlueAnti-GayBrian BrownC4Equality For AllIowaMarriage EqualityMarriage EqualityNational Organization for MarriageTamara ScottFair and Just CourtsFighting the Right50891Mon, 23 Feb 2015 17:11:49 -0500IowaRobert Knight: Stop Gay Marriage By Impeaching Judges Who Rule For Equalityhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/robert-knight-stop-gay-marriage-impeaching-judges-who-rule-equality
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/robert_knight_a.jpg?1349882525" />
<p>Washington Times columnist Robert Knight joined Steve Deace on his <a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-02-12-15/">radio program</a> yesterday to discuss the showdown in Alabama over a federal court ruling striking down the state&rsquo;s ban on same-sex marriage.</p>
<p>Knight lamented that &ldquo;judges have gotten out of control&rdquo; because state and federal lawmakers have failed to bring them &ldquo;to heel&rdquo; by impeaching judges who rule in favor of marriage equality.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The reason judges have gotten out of control is because legislators have not protected their turf, they have not used the constitutional means to bring these judges to heel,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;One of them is impeachment. At the federal level and at the state level, there are many ways judges can be removed. In Massachusetts, it would have been easy to remove the Supreme Court judges who found a right to gay marriage in the Massachusetts Constitution in 2004, but that would have taken Gov. Mitt Romney to go ahead and get the process going and he refused.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He also blamed the &ldquo;pro-family movement&rdquo; for failing to address why homosexuality is &ldquo;bad for people&rdquo; and neglecting to lift up the stories of people &ldquo;who have recovered and become straight.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>Deace told Knight that Republicans who think a Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality would help them by putting aside a contentious issue are wrong, and that the ensuing national debate would<br />
&ldquo;make Roe v. Wade look like a picnic.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is going to go DEFCON 1, DEFCON subterranean, because now we&rsquo;re going to be in an issue where the other side of the argument now thinks they are empowered and emboldened to unleash the full coercive power of government to force believers nationwide all the way to the church door to change their belief system,&rdquo; he said.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is going to escalate if the court goes Roe v. Wade on this in the summer,&rdquo; he warned. &ldquo;It won&rsquo;t diminish it at all. It will take this from a largely provincial state-by-state issue into a national debate that I think&rsquo;s going to make Roe v. Wade look like a picnic.&rdquo;</p>
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Miranda BlueAnti-GayC4Equality For AllIowaMarriage EqualityMarriage EqualityRobert Knight Steve DeaceFighting the Right50431Fri, 13 Feb 2015 11:31:31 -0500IowaBob Vander Plaats Says His Warnings Of Parent-Child Marriage, Self-Marriage Are 'Starting To Come True'http://www.pfaw.org/content/bob-vander-plaats-says-his-warnings-parent-child-marriage-self-marriage-are-starting-come-tr
<p>In an<a href="http://theiowarepublican.com/2015/the-family-leader-continues-to-hope-for-reversal-of-gay-marriage/"> interview with the Iowa Republican</a> yesterday, Bob Vander Plaats of the Religious Right group The Family Leader said that all of his dire warnings about the consequences of marriage equality are &ldquo;starting to come true.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>&ldquo;A lot of the things that we said early on that people said were red herrings, that we&rsquo;re just trying to scare people, they&rsquo;re starting to come true,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A woman wants to marry herself, a dad wants to marry a daughter, three people out on the East Coast want to get married, polygamy laws are getting labeled as unconstitutional. So it&rsquo;s not about redefining marriage, it&rsquo;s about un-defining marriage.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Vander Plaats was at the state capitol hosting his group&rsquo;s annual rally against marriage equality and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/family-leader-distributing-david-bartons-christian-nation-bible-every-iowa-state-legislator"> distributing copies of David Barton&rsquo;s &ldquo;Founders&rsquo; Bible&rdquo; to every state legislator</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2015/02/video-bob-vander-plaats-cites-woman-marrying-herself-businesses-following-nondiscrimination-law-as-proof-that-he-was-righ.html">h/t Good As You&nbsp;</a></p>
Miranda BlueAnti-GayBob Vander PlaatsC4Equality For AllIowaMarriage EqualityMarriage EqualityThe Family LeaderFighting the Right49946Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:43:18 -0500IowaRNC Member: End Of School Prayer Led To 'Assault, Rape, Murder'http://www.pfaw.org/content/rnc-member-end-school-prayer-led-assault-rape-murder
<p>Iowa Republican National Committee member Tamara Scott, who also runs the state chapter of Concerned Women for America and works as a lobbyist for The Family Leader, told the &ldquo;View From a Pew&rdquo; radio program last week that more prayer rallies like Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; are needed <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/more-governors-planning-response-rallies-stop-god-destroying-america-says-tamara-scott"> to prevent God from destroying America </a> .</p>
<p>One of the things for which the country needs to repent in order to get back on God&rsquo;s good side, Scott said <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAyygqGBJG0">later in the interview</a>, is the end of state-sponsored prayer in schools.</p>
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<p>&ldquo;When the prayer came out in the &lsquo;70s, and that&rsquo;s one of the things that I prayed for last week in Louisiana with 6,000 people, repentance, because we as a church should never have let that happen, we should never have allowed prayer to be taken out of our schools,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>She cited the claims of Christian-nation activist David Barton, who <a href="http://www.amazon.com/America-To-Pray-Not/dp/B000XKAXHM">links the end of state-sponsored school prayer</a> to all manner of social ills. &ldquo;Since we&rsquo;ve done that, David Barton has done studies and research that in your schools, the crimes used to be gum, tardiness and talking. Now it is assault, rape, murder. We&rsquo;re dealing with much more difficult issues,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<p>(In reality, the rates of <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-violent-crime-1970s-level-20141110-story.html">violent crime</a> and <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/12/rape-way-down-over-past-two-decades-%E2%80%94-so-all-violent-crime">sexual assault</a> have plummeted in the last two decades.)</p>
<p>Scott suggested that instead of passing a &ldquo;horrible&rdquo; anti-bullying bill currently being considered in the state legislature, Iowa should just return Christian prayer to schools:</p>
<p>&ldquo;The problem is, like prayer, we took out the golden rule in our schools &mdash; which is a scripture verse, treat others like you want to be yourself treated &mdash; we&rsquo;ve taken the Bible out and the schools are groping for something to replace it, and in its place with all kinds of bad law on top of bad law that only oppress us and make us all victims to possible crime and punishment for somebody else&rsquo;s cause.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Later in the interview, Scott insisted that the separation of church and state is &ldquo;nowhere&rdquo; in the Constitution and that if conservative Christians &ldquo;only had the courage of the pagans or those who disagree with us, if we stood on our convictions as much as they do, we wouldn&rsquo;t be in this.&rdquo;</p>
Miranda BlueBobby Jindal C4Iowarepublican national committee School PrayerSeparation of Church and StateTamara ScottThe Family LeaderThe ResponseConcerned Women for AmericaFighting the RightReligious Liberty49796Mon, 02 Feb 2015 15:23:00 -0500IowaMore Governors Planning 'Response' Rallies To Stop God From Destroying America, Says Tamara Scotthttp://www.pfaw.org/content/more-governors-planning-response-rallies-stop-god-destroying-america-says-tamara-scott
<p>Tamara Scott, an Iowa Religious Right organizer and RNC committeewoman who was <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindals-extremist-prayer-rally-brings-together-prophets-bigots-and-far-right-activists"> involved in organizing </a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/real-problems-bobby-jindal-and-his-prayer-rally"> Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; prayer rally</a>, said last week that a number of other Republican governors have committed to or are seriously considering holding similar rallies, which she hoped would save America from God&rsquo;s destruction.</p>
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<p>In an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAyygqGBJG0">interview</a> with &ldquo;The View From a Pew&rdquo; program, an Iowa-based webcast, Scott said that in addition to Jindal and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindal-hopes-emulate-rick-perrys-miracle-producing-prayers">hosted</a> a &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; event in 2011, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley &ldquo;has agreed&rdquo; to host a rally and organizers are trying to convince Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to do the same.</p>
<p>On her own program, &ldquo;Tamara Scott Live,&rdquo; earlier in the week, Scott <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwMNZWXGk08">said</a> that Gov. Rick Scott of Florida had sent a staff member to the Jindal event to investigate the possibility of holding a &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; rally himself and that Jindal had approached Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to ask him to consider holding one as well. Scott also expressed her hope that Gov. Sam Brownback of Kansas would consider hosting a rally.</p>
<p>Scott told the &ldquo;View from a Pew&rdquo; hosts that such events are needed to save American from destruction, paraphrasing the biblical book of Jeremiah: &ldquo;If I build up your nation and you fall away, I&rsquo;ll destroy you&hellip;If I&rsquo;m going to destroy you and you repent, I will heal your land and rebuild you.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;If our federal government is not smart enough to stick to the foundational principles of those who set this country on the great start that it had by calling on the name of Jesus &mdash; George Washington to all the men on Mount Rushmore &mdash; if they were not smart enough to understand, then our states can do it individually,&rdquo; she said on the earlier program.</p>
<p>The Jindal rally&rsquo;s organizers have hinted that other governors may be planning similar events, writing in a recent email, &ldquo;There is a sense that God may be orchestrating similar days of prayer and fasting called by Governors around the nation over this next year.&rdquo; Although the event&rsquo;s main organizer, David Lane, has <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/republican-presidential-hopefuls-favorite-christian-nation-extremist"> allied with a number of top Republican figures</a>, he has yet to name names of governors he hopes to convince to host &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; replicas.</p>
<p>Jindal was forced multiple times to back away from the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindal-predictably-partnering-anti-gay-radicals-his-prayer-rally">extremism of the organizers</a> of his &ldquo;The Response&rdquo; rally, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/meet-david-lane-anti-gay-christian-nation-extremist-rnc">David Lane and the American Family Association</a>. A prayer guide posted on the event&rsquo;s website <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/jindal-rally-organizers-remove-controversial-prayer-guide-still-think-gays-are-responsible-n"> was removed </a> after we reported that it <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bobby-jindals-prayer-rally-materials-blame-gays-legal-abortion-hurricane-katrina"> blamed marriage equality and legal abortion for natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina</a>. Then the organizers <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/organizers-gov-jindals-prayer-rally-retroactively-try-cover-cindy-jacobs-endorsement">tried to scrub the website</a> of evidence of the participation of self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs after Rachel Maddow <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rachel-maddow-takes-questionable-characters-jindal-prayer-rally">ran a segment </a>highlighting her extremism. And a few days after the rally, AFA <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/afa-cannot-wash-its-hands-bryan-fischers-bigotry-easily">stripped its main spokesman, Bryan Fischer,</a> of his title under apparent pressure from the Republican National Committee, which was about to send 60 of its members on <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rnc-teams-anti-gay-extremist-and-hate-group">a trip to Israel funded by the AFA and organized by Lane</a>.</p>
Miranda BlueAmerican Family Association Bobby Jindal Bryan FischerC4David LaneFloridaIowaKansasLouisianaNikki Haleyrepublican national committee Rick Perry Rick ScottSam Brownback Scott WalkerSouth CarolinaTamara ScottTerry BranstadTexasThe ResponseWisconsinAmerican Renewal ProjectConcerned Women for AmericaFighting the RightReligious Liberty49781Mon, 02 Feb 2015 14:09:54 -0500IowaThe Family Leader Is Distributing David Barton's 'Christian Nation' Bible To Every Iowa State Legislatorhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/family-leader-distributing-david-bartons-christian-nation-bible-every-iowa-state-legislator
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/david_barton_2_a.jpg?1349460510" />
<p>Iowa Religious Right group The Family Leader, a <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/family-leader-iowa-2016-114060.html">key player</a> in the GOP&rsquo;s first-in-the-nation caucus, has a new plan to encourage legislators in Iowa to &ldquo;do what God has asked them to do.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The group is <a href="http://www.thefamilyleader.com/the-iowa-capitol-project/">soliciting funds</a> to purchase $100 leather-bound copies of &ldquo;The Founders Bible" &mdash; which is annotated by <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america">hack historian David Barton</a> with his thoughts on &ldquo;our Judeo-Christian history as a nation"<span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">&mdash;</span><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">for each member of the Iowa state legislature.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>In &ldquo;The Founders Bible,&rdquo; legislators will find such educational passages as a <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2012/07/17/founders-bible-rewrites-exodus-18-to-fit-christian-nation-narrative/"> retelling of Exodus </a> that portrays Moses as the inventor of republican government; a <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2012/10/10/david-bartons-founders-bible-is-wrong-about-the-aitken-bible/">made-up story</a> about the early American government printing Bibles; an <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthrockmorton/2012/10/02/confirmed-david-bartons-founders-bible-cites-pro-slavery-james-hammond-as-proponent-of-america-as-christian-nation/"> endorsement </a> of the &ldquo;Christian nation&rdquo; concept from a notorious defender of slavery; <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barton-dna-evidence-biblical-concept">information</a> on the &ldquo;many areas in which the Constitution specifically incorporated Biblical principles&rdquo;; and an argument for the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/barton-dna-evidence-biblical-concept">biblical origin of DNA evidence</a>. All of this is intended to advance <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/rww-in-focus/barton-s-bunk-religious-right-historian-hits-the-big-time-tea-party-america">Barton&rsquo;s view</a> that the U.S. government exists to carry out his interpretation of the Bible&rsquo;s commands.</p>
<p>In its fundraising appeal, The Family Leader asks churches to sponsor copies of Barton&rsquo;s Bible to give to legislators in their own districts at the group&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href="http://www.thefamilyleader.com/events/life-marriage-and-family-rally/">Life, Marriage and Family Rally</a>&rdquo; next week. While they&rsquo;re at the state capitol, the group is <a href="http://www.thefamilyleader.com/the-iowa-capitol-project/">asking pastors</a> to meet with legislators in order to engage &ldquo;in this war with Satan, who has taken many captive in Des Moines&rdquo; through such means as &ldquo;working to divide Christian organizations, back room deals, or organizations like Planned Parenthood pushing wicked policies&rdquo;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our goal has been to encourage pastors to team up with The FAMiLY LEADER in accomplishing our two main goals at TFL:</p>
<p><strong>1.</strong> <strong> </strong> <strong>Fulfill the Great Commission by sharing the Gospel in the civic arena.</strong> We do this by building relationships and showing the love of Christ to not only elected officials, but also staff, lobbyists, campaign workers, and many others who engage in the civic arena with the purpose of pointing them to Christ.</p>
<p><strong>2. Pass righteous legislation that will help our brothers and sisters in the church, as well as current believers.</strong> Government is one of God&rsquo;s three institutions, and when it fulfills its purpose, (which is to punish evil and reward good, Romans 13:1-4), it displays God&rsquo;s perfect design. Our goal is to help our elected officials do what God has asked them to do.</p>
<p>One of the ways we accomplish these goals is by our work at the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines. The FAMiLY LEADER has four lobbyists who work at the capitol during the legislative session. The lobbyists are there to serve as missionaries. I am blessed to be one of them.</p>
<p>&hellip;</p>
<p>When pastors come to the Capitol, the first thing they do is meet with The FAMiLY LEADER team in the morning. We bring them up to date on what different legislation is being worked on, who is spiritually soft, who their ministers are, and who is in need of prayer. By meeting with us, we are able to bring pastors up to date as if they were there every day. Following the meeting, pastors then go upstairs to the House and Senate chambers and work with them to help them contact their different legislators.</p>
<p>What happens next is just amazing! We usually see dozens of pastors out in the Capitol rotunda praying, encouraging, building relationships, and sharing God&rsquo;s Word with legislators and many others. The environment at the Capitol completely changes when these pastors are present. There is less cursing, less back-stabbing, and the place even seems brighter! There is so much spiritual warfare in that building. Whether it is Satan working to divide Christian organizations, back room deals, or organizations like Planned Parenthood pushing wicked policies, these pastors are engaging in this war with Satan, who has taken many captive in Des Moines.</p>
<p>&hellip;</p>
<p><strong>Specific projects:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Legislator Bibles</strong> &ndash; We want to bring the Gospel to the Iowa Legislature. The goal is to get 150 Founders&rsquo; Bibles in the hands of Iowa&rsquo;s 150 legislators.</p>
<p>But we need your help to accomplish this goal. We are working with churches in each legislators&rsquo; district to see if they will sponsor a Bible for their legislator. The cost for the Bible is $100.<br />
When churches participate in the Iowa Capitol Project, they accomplish 3 big things:</p>
<p>1. Get a Bible in the hands of Iowa&rsquo;s lawmakers.<br />
2. Connect a legislator with a local church (which we believe is most important).<br />
3. Have that local church faithfully praying for their legislator. (Imagine each legislator having a congregation faithfully praying for them. Wow! God could really use that!)</p>
<p>The Bible itself is a Founders&rsquo; Bible, which is a NASB Study Bible that focuses on our Judeo-Christian history as a nation. The Study Bible&rsquo;s devotions are written by Dr. David Barton. The Bible will be leather bound with gold trim on the pages, and it will be embossed with Seal of Iowa and the legislator&rsquo;s name. It will be something nice they will keep and hopefully read on a regular basis because of the compelling content pertaining to their job at the Capitol.</p>
<p>In order to initiate personal relationships between churches and legislators, we want a pastor and/or church members from the legislators&rsquo; own district to personally present the Bibles on February 3rd at our annual Life, Marriage, and Family Rally.</p>
</blockquote>
Miranda BlueC4Christian NationDavid Barton Founders BibleIowaThe Family LeaderWallbuilders Fighting the Right49640Wed, 28 Jan 2015 15:20:01 -0500IowaAnti-Choice Activists Furious About GOP's Reversal On 20-Week Abortion Banhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/anti-choice-activists-furious-about-gops-reversal-20-week-abortion-ban
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/erick_erickson_a_1.jpg?1392225147" />
<p>Yesterday, Republican leaders in the House decided to <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/gop-leaders-pull-abortion-bill-after-revolt-by-women-moderates-20150121">pull a plan</a> to vote on a national ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy after Republican women balked at a provision that would have exempted rape survivors only if they reported their assault to the police. The vote had been planned to coincide with the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the anti-choice March for Life on the National Mall.</p>
<p>Anti-choice activists are, predictably, furious. After all, many saw the rape and incest exception as an unacceptable compromise in the first place. The bill, originally proposed by Rep. Trent Franks last year, included only an exception for abortions that could save the life of the pregnant woman. After Franks claimed in a hearing that &ldquo;the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low,&rdquo; GOP leaders <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/14/rape-exception-abortion-trent-franks_n_3443916.html">quietly added a rape exception to the bill</a> and picked a Republican woman, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, to handle the vote on the House floor.</p>
<p>Rep. Steve King of Iowa <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/congress/gop-leaders-pull-abortion-bill-after-revolt-by-women-moderates-20150121">told the National Journal</a>&nbsp;yesterday that he would fix the problem by eliminating the rape exception entirely: "I would not make exceptions for rape and incest, and then the reporting requirement would not be necessary.&rdquo;</p>
<p>After House leaders decided to pull the bill yesterday, prominent anti-choice blogger Jill Stanek and the group Students for Life announced that they were <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2015/01/22/the-two-faces-of-renee-ellmers-as-house-republicans-fail-pro-lifers/"> putting together a last-minute protest </a> at the offices of two Republican women, Reps. Renee Ellmers and Jackie Walorski, who reportedly led the fight against the rape reporting provision:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Strategizing w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/JillStanek">@JillStanek</a> to bring young prolife women to the offices of <a href="https://twitter.com/RepReneeEllmers">@RepReneeEllmers</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RepWalorski">@RepWalorski</a> today <a href="http://t.co/uGvuJFOBYF">pic.twitter.com/uGvuJFOBYF</a></p>
&mdash; Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) <a href="https://twitter.com/KristanHawkins/status/558268410438909953">January 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>Conservative pundit Erik Erickson, in a late-night <a href="http://www.redstate.com/2015/01/22/the-two-faces-of-renee-ellmers-as-house-republicans-fail-pro-lifers/">blog post</a>, attacked Ellmers for her &ldquo;two-faced ploy&rdquo; and shot off a series of tweets giving her the &ldquo;abortion Barbie&rdquo; label he had previously bestowed on Wendy Davis:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>From Abortion Barbie to Abortion Ellmers</p>
&mdash; Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/558105394003070976">January 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="http://www.pfaw.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Renee Ellmers is the GOP's Abortion Barbie.</p>
&mdash; Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) <a href="https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/558267587457720320">January 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
<p>Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention&rsquo;s policy arm, responded with a <a href="http://erlc.com/article/erlcs-russell-moore-disgusted-by-gops-decision-to-drop-major-pro-life-bill">press release</a> saying he was &ldquo;disgusted&rdquo; by the House leadership&rsquo;s &ldquo;act of moral cowardice&rdquo; and <a href="http://erlc.com/article/erlcs-russell-moore-disgusted-by-gops-decision-to-drop-major-pro-life-bill">urged his supporters</a> to call their members of Congress to protest the &ldquo;breach of trust.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am disgusted by this act of moral cowardice. If the House Republicans cannot pass something as basic as restricting the abortion of five-month, pain-capable unborn children, what can they get done?</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Republicans in Congress should come and explain this atrocity to the hundreds of thousands of people gathering here in the nation&rsquo;s capital to march for life. The congressional Republicans seem to think that pro-lifers will be satisfied with Ronald Reagan rhetoric and Nancy Pelosi results. They are quite wrong.&rdquo;</p>
<p>House Republicans are now scheduled to vote on a bill Thursday that would prohibit federal funding for abortions. This scheduled vote coincides with the annual <a href="http://marchforlife.org/">March for Life</a> event, held in Washington, D.C., on or around the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court&rsquo;s decision legalizing abortion in the case Roe v. Wade.</p>
<p>Conservative columnist Ross Douthat seemed to capture the feelings of many abortion rights opponents:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>The idea that GOP is a party of moneyed interests posing as a culturally conservative party is, um, not always without empirical support.</p>
&mdash; Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/DouthatNYT/status/558094982540951553">January 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="http://www.pfaw.org//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Miranda BlueAnti-ChoiceC4Erick EricksonIowaJill Stanek Kristan HawkinsMarch for LifeReproductive HealthRoss DouthatRussell MooreSouthern Baptist Convention Steve King Students for Life Fighting the Right49561Thu, 22 Jan 2015 10:23:45 -0500IowaAlveda King Cites Racist Ferguson Photoshop: 'I Googled It To Make Sure It Was True'http://www.pfaw.org/content/alveda-king-cites-racist-ferguson-photoshop-i-googled-it-make-sure-it-was-true
<p>Back in September, a photographer for the St. Louis Riverfront Times <a href="http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/09/andy_wurm_protest_regulars_react_to_being_kicked_off.php">took a photo</a> of a group of protestors in front of the Ferguson, Missouri, police station, one of whom, a young African American man, was holding a sign reading &ldquo;No mother should have to fear for her son&rsquo;s life every time he leaves home.&rdquo; Two months later, as protests were again rocking Ferguson, the image was <a href="http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/12/riverfront_times_photo_goes_viral_after_being_edited_to_seem_super_racist.php"> resurrected as a viral racist meme </a> after someone photoshopped the man&rsquo;s sign to read &ldquo;No mother should have to fear for her son&rsquo;s life every time he <em>robs a store</em>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The image was quickly traced back to its origin and debunked, but not before it had entered the popular conscious of right-wing activists trying to demonize the Ferguson protestors.</p>
<p>Among these, it turns out, is Alveda King, a conservative activist who is a niece of Martin Luther King, Jr., who cited the hoax photo in an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eOAuTA1Z94&list=UUCPbMj25YJRB-PMRzz5GuHQ">interview last week</a> with Iowa GOP committeewoman Tamara Scott as she asserted that if a &ldquo;child is trained&rdquo; then &ldquo;he or she will not be in the wrong place at the wrong time&rdquo; like Michael Brown.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I just can&rsquo;t believe that quote,&rdquo; Scott responded, adding, &ldquo;It just shows you a whole mindset.&rdquo;</p>
<p>King responded that she also &ldquo;couldn&rsquo;t believe it&rdquo; but had &ldquo;Googled it to make sure it was true.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/npeUDaonj84" width="560"></iframe></p>
Miranda BlueAlveda King C4FergusonIowaMissouriTamara ScottFighting the Right49301Tue, 16 Dec 2014 15:12:07 -0500IowaVideo: The Worst Of The GOP's Anti-Immigrant Rhetorichttp://www.pfaw.org/content/video-worst-gop-s-anti-immigrant-rhetoric
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/WwBSyQ8o1gY" width="560"></iframe></p>
<p>As President Obama prepares to announce the steps that he will take to provide temporary deportation relief for some undocumented immigrants, it&rsquo;s important to remember why he&rsquo;s taking this step. It&rsquo;s not because Obama and Democrats refuse to work with Republicans to address pressing immigration problems. It&rsquo;s because a small but influential segment of the Republican caucus <em>refuses to do anything</em> to fix the immigration system.</p>
<p>Today, we at People For the American Way joined with American Bridge to <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/press-releases/2014/11/american-bridge-and-people-american-way-release-new-video-gops-offensive-immi">release a video</a> highlighting the kind of rhetoric from congressional Republicans that has sunk any kind of attempt at bipartisan immigration reform.</p>
<p>Some of the examples of anti-immigrant rhetoric from GOP members of Congress&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/rerep-stockman-there-are-more-people-coming-across-border-we-sent-invade-france">will be</a> <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/steve-king-threatens-government-shutdown-impeachment-over-immigration-executive-action">familiar</a> to RWW readers. And, sadly, we have <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/topics/immigration-0">plenty more where they came from</a>.</p>
Miranda BlueBarbara ComstockBlake FarentholdC4David PerdueGeorgiaIowaSteve King Steve StockmanTexasVirginia Fighting the Right49082Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:32:54 -0500IowaSteve King Compares Immigration Standoff To Fighting ISIS; Keeps Shutdown, Censure & Impeachment On The Tablehttp://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-king-compares-immigration-standoff-fighting-isis-keeps-shutdown-censure-impeachment-ta
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/steve_king_1_a.jpg?1367604480" />
<p>In an <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2014/11/constitutional-crisis-obama-not-bluffing-on-amnesty/">interview</a> with WorldNetDaily today, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, compared the congressional GOP&rsquo;s standoff with President Obama over immigration reform to the fight against ISIS, saying that the Republican caucus should be prepared to &ldquo;use all the constitutional means at our disposal&rdquo; and not take a government shutdown or impeachment proceedings off the table.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/177850687&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>&ldquo;The president is holding a right hostage to an ultimatum,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We have a right to secure borders, we have a right to demand and expect that our president enforce the law, but he&rsquo;s giving us an ultimatum that Congress can either pass amnesty or he&rsquo;s going to commit it by a constitutional violation.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
&ldquo;I think that we can&rsquo;t take cutting off funding off the table,&rdquo; he continued. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about the equivalent of saying in the fight against ISIS that there will be no boots on the ground. Republicans should not make those kind of mistakes that the president has made in his messaging to ISIS. So that means that we should use all the constitutional means at our disposal.&rdquo;<br />
<br />
He added that &ldquo;I want to do the minimum possible to restore the constitution,&rdquo; which could include &ldquo;cutting off the funding,&rdquo; passing a motion to censure the president, or impeachment, which he called &ldquo;the last resort, not one that I favor at all.&rdquo;<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
Miranda BlueC4government shutdownImmigrationIowaObama impeachmentSteve King Fighting the Right49073Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:59:43 -0500IowaSteve King: Immigration Action Would Send Country 'Descending Abruptly Into An Abyss'http://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-king-immigration-action-would-send-country-descending-abruptly-abyss
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/steve_king_a.jpg?1367603404" />
<p>In an interview this week with Rick Santorum, who was guest-hosting Steve Deace&rsquo;s radio program, Rep. Steve King of Iowa <a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-11-11-14/">said</a> that if President Obama takes &nbsp;executive action to grant deportation relief to some immigrants, he may push for Congress to shut down the government or impeach President Obama in order to prevent the country from &ldquo;descending abruptly into an abyss that we have never seen in the history of this country.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/176934115&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>King said that if the president were to issue such an order, he would advocate for Congress to only pass a spending bill funding the government until January &ldquo;so that we could address this thing by shutting off the funding.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go down the path that would bring us to where the confrontation between Congress and Bill Clinton in 1998, but neither would I take it off the table,&rdquo; King said, referring to impeachment. He then compared his strategy for confronting Obama with the president&rsquo;s national security policy: &ldquo;The president has said some things like no boots on the ground and the war in Afghanistan is over at the end of 2014. You don&rsquo;t make those kinds of predictions and you don&rsquo;t unilaterally disarm. You use all the constitutional tools at our disposal. &rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Our constitution will be torn asunder if we let the president do this,&rdquo; King continued.</p>
<p>&ldquo;What he&rsquo;s contemplating doing is the equivalent of standing up in front of America, opening up the Constitution, taking ahold of Article 1 &mdash; all of the congressional legislative authority &mdash; tearing that out and putting it in his shirt pocket and saying, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll do the lawmaking in this country, it&rsquo;s not your business, Congress.&rsquo; If we let that happen, our constitutional republic is descending abruptly into an abyss that we have never seen in the history of this country.&rdquo;</p>
<p>As the American Immigration Council has <a href="http://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/newsroom/release/president%E2%80%99s-executive-actions-immigration-should-spur-congressional-action"> documented</a>, every president since Eisenhower has used executive authority to grant &ldquo;temporary immigration relief to one or more groups in need of assistance.&rdquo;</p>
Miranda BlueC4ImmigrationIowaSteve King Fighting the Right49019Fri, 14 Nov 2014 15:35:56 -0500IowaPersonhood Group Thanks Joni Ernst For Sticking With Them On Toxic Issuehttp://www.pfaw.org/content/personhood-group-thanks-joni-ernst-sticking-them-toxic-issue
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Joni_Ernst.jpg?1415310916" />
<p>Personhood USA is not used to electoral victories.</p>
<p>On Tuesday, the Colorado-based group <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/why-tennessees-anti-choice-measure-won-while-colorados-and-north-dakotas-went-down-flames"> failed for the third time </a> to pass a ballot measure granting legal rights to zygotes in its home state. It <a href="http://christiannewswire.com/news/3254475073.html">consoled itself</a> that at least the measure &mdash; whose <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/11/04/personhood_goes_down_in_colorado_voters_say_no_to_amendment_67.html"> scope had been somewhat narrowed </a> in an effort to attract voters &mdash; lost less badly than it had in the past.</p>
<p>Adding insult to injury, Colorado&rsquo;s successful Republican Senate candidate, Cory Gardner, had <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/personhood-bills-so-toxic-cory-gardner-desperately-trying-deny-hes-sponsoring-one"> renounced his support for the amendment </a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/republicans-solve-problem-personhood-amendments-unpopularity-lying-about-personhood-amendmen"> started lying about the fact </a> that he was still supporting a similar measure in the U.S. House, causing Personhood USA&rsquo;s head, Keith Mason, to joke about <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/personhood-leaders-halloween-costume-stabbed-back-cory-gardner"> dressing up as someone stabbed in the back by Gardner for Halloween</a>.</p>
<p>But the group did find one thing to be very happy about this week. In a <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/personhood-usa-congratulates-joni-ernst-for-defending-personhood-during-principled-senate-victory-281642391.html"> press release </a> that serves as a barely veiled dig at Gardner, Personhood USA congratulates successful Iowa Senate candidate Joni Ernst &ldquo;for defending personhood during [a] principled Senate victory.&rdquo; After falsely <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/29/joni-ernst-personhood_n_5902392.html">claiming in a debate</a> that a state-level personhood bill she supported wouldn&rsquo;t actually do anything but instead was just a symbolic &ldquo;statement,&rdquo; Ernst later <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/senate-candidate-endorses_n_5997126.html">confirmed that she would in fact support</a> a federal-level personhood bill.</p>
<p>Personhood USA cites Ernst&rsquo;s support for their cause to encourage Republican presidential candidates vying to win the Iowa caucuses to embrace similarly radical anti-choice stands:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Joni Ernst didn't just <em>say</em> she was pro-life, she actually had the courage to <em>act</em> pro-life," said Keith Mason, President of Personhood USA. "After all, supporting personhood rights for the unborn is what it means to be pro-life. By doubling down on her support for personhood and energizing her pro-life base, she was able to win her race by a wide margin."</p>
<p>Ernst's victory sends a clear message to potential Republican presidential candidates who want to win the Iowa caucuses. In June, a personhood resolution on the South Carolina GOP ballot won by a landslide with 79% support from voters.</p>
<p>"Republican presidential candidates campaigning in Iowa and South Carolina should pay attention to the grassroots majority who want a candidate that acts pro-life," Mason continued. "Ernst's margin of victory is further confirmation that courageous integrity and fidelity to core pro-life values are a winning combination. While some other candidates narrowly eked by after turning their backs on their pro-life constituencies, Ernst's unapologetic strategy reaped major dividends."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ernst will hardly be alone as a personhood champion in Congress. A personhood bill sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul currently has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/583/cosponsors">21 cosponsors in the Senate</a> and a House bill has <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1091/cosponsors">132 cosponsors</a>&hellip;including Gardner.</p>
Miranda BlueAnti-ChoiceC4ColoradoIowaJoni ErnstKeith MasonPersonhood USAReproductive HealthFighting the Right48946Thu, 06 Nov 2014 16:56:22 -0500IowaHow 2014's Elections Will Influence 2016's Voting Rightshttp://www.pfaw.org/content/how-2014s-elections-will-influence-2016s-voting-rights
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/vote.jpg?1323366905" />
<p>Voters across the country trying to cast votes in Tuesday&rsquo;s elections ran into hurdles erected by Republican legislatures, governors and secretaries of state. Along with <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/problems-reported-polls-vary-state-state">mechanical glitches and human error</a> &mdash; which occurred in states with leaders on both sides of the political spectrum &mdash; voters faced new laws and policies that made it harder to vote.</p>
<p>In Alabama, a last-minute decision by the attorney general <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/lbupdate/3588262/in-last-minute-decision-alabama-says-voters-cant-use-public-housing-id-at-the-polls/"> barred people from using public housing IDs to vote</a>. Voter ID laws in North Carolina and Texas <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-voting-monitors-concerns-20141104-story.html?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fpolitics+%28L.A.+Times+-+Politics%29"> sowed confusion</a>. Georgia <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/222977-voting-problems-cited-in-key-states">lost 40,000 voter registrations, mostly from minorities</a>. In all, the group Election Protection <a href="http://www.866ourvote.org/newsroom/releases/election-day-2014-democracy-should-not-be-this-hard">reported receiving 18,000 calls</a> on Election Day, many of them <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-voting-monitors-concerns-20141104-story.html?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fpolitics+%28L.A.+Times+-+Politics%29"> having to do with voter ID laws</a>. The group <a href="http://www.866ourvote.org/newsroom/releases/election-day-2014-democracy-should-not-be-this-hard">noted</a> that the flurry of calls represented &ldquo;a nearly 40 percent increase from 13,000 calls received in 2010.&rdquo;</p>
<p>In the presidential election year of 2016, it looks unlikely that those problems will subside &mdash; especially if Congress fails to <a href="http://blog.pfaw.org/content/pfaw-and-allies-deliver-half-million-signatures-calling-congress-restore-voting-rights-act"> restore the Voting Rights Act</a>. The two states that had the closest vote tallies in the last presidential election &mdash; Florida and Ohio &mdash; will go into the presidential election year with Republicans controlling the offices of governor and secretary of state and holding majorities in their state legislatures.</p>
<p>In Florida, Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who won reelection yesterday, will be able to&nbsp;<a href="http://dos.myflorida.com/about-the-department/about-the-secretary/">appoint a secretary of state</a> and will enjoy the support of a <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article3565954.html">veto-proof Republican majority in the state House.</a></p>
<p>In Ohio, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/voting-future-voting-secretary-state-races-watch"> controversial Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted </a> won reelection on Tuesday, along with Gov. John Kasich. They&rsquo;ll be able to work with a <a href="http://www.sunherald.com/2014/11/04/5893513_ohio-gop-seeks-to-bolster-legislative.html?rh=1\"> strengthened GOP majority in the state legislature</a>.</p>
<p>In North Carolina, where a Republican legislature and governor have&nbsp;<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/how-big-money-bought-north-carolina-extremists">cracked down on voting rights</a>, the GOP <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/11/04/4294548_nc-general-assembly-democrats.html?rh=1">held onto its majority</a>. Republican secretary of state candidates in the swing states of <a href="http://www.9news.com/story/news/politics/2014/11/04/secretary-of-state-race/18441033/">Colorado</a>, <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/2014/11/05/secretary-state-paul-pate-brad-anderson-jake-porter-election/18520695/">Iowa</a> and <a href="http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/Cegavske-Wins-NV-Secretary-of-State-Race-281583231.html">Nevada</a> also won elections yesterday.</p>
<p>Two influential elections for voting rights also took place in states unlikely to be presidential swing states. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/voting-future-voting-secretary-state-races-watch">national ringleader</a> for advocates of restrictive voting laws, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/voting-future-voting-secretary-state-races-watch">won reelection</a>. In Arizona, which has been working with Kansas to defend their states' respective tough voting requirements, Republican candidate Michele Reagan also <a href="http://ktar.com/22/1780374/Michele-Reagan-wins-Arizonas-race-for-secretary-of-state">won her contest</a>.</p>
<p>One exception to the trend is Pennsylvania, where Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/corbett-pulls-plug-pennsylvania-voter-id"> who backed a harsh voter ID law that has since been struck down in the courts</a>, lost to <a href="http://www.wolfforpa.com/sections/page/fairness-and-equality-for-pennsylvanians">voting rights supporter</a> Tom Wolf. Although Wolf will <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/elections/20141105_GOP_appears_poised_to_defend_Pa__legislative_edge.html"> contend with a Republican majority </a> in the state legislature, he will be able to appoint a secretary of the commonwealth.</p>
Miranda BlueAlabamaArizonaC4ColoradoElection 2014Election 2016FloridaGeorgiaIowaJohn KasichJon HustedKansasKris Kobach Michele ReaganNorth CarolinaOhioPennsylvaniaRick ScottTexasTom CorbettVoting RightsFighting the RightThe Right to Vote48939Thu, 06 Nov 2014 12:02:22 -0500IowaPat Buchanan: Joni Ernst A 'Gal' With The 'Same Kind Of Attractiveness' As Sarah Palinhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/pat-buchanan-joni-ernst-gal-same-kind-attractiveness-sarah-palin
<p>Democratic Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/tom-harkin-dont-be-fooled-because-joni-ernst-is-really-attra">drew criticism from right and left</a> last week when he urged voters not to choose Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate to replace him, simply because she&rsquo;s &ldquo;really attractive&rdquo; and &ldquo;sounds nice.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan apparently didn&rsquo;t get the memo.</p>
<p>The former Republican presidential candidate dedicated a good portion of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0CxZ4N-BqM&list=UUx6h-dWzJ5NpAlja1YsApdg">an interview with Newsmax</a> today to gushing about how now Senator-elect Ernst is &ldquo;a gal with a real sense of humor and a fighting spirit&rdquo; and &ldquo;has the same kind of attractiveness that Sarah Palin had at the start and that Michele Bachmann gained in the Iowa caucuses, being a very attractive, outspoken person, a woman in the GOP full of passion and full of hard-core philosophy.&rdquo;</p>
<p align="center"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.pfaw.org//www.youtube.com/embed/Ko7fcgc-zSw" width="560"></iframe></p>
Miranda BlueC4Election 2014IowaJoni ErnstNewsmaxPat Buchanan Fighting the Right48928Wed, 05 Nov 2014 16:07:19 -0500IowaVoting For The Future Of Voting: Secretary of State Races To Watchhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/voting-future-voting-secretary-state-races-watch
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_images/kris_kobach_A.jpg?1381161842" />
<p>One influential issue at the ballot box this year is the future of how we cast our ballots. In secretary of state races throughout the country, voters will be choosing who runs their elections &mdash; and how open those elections are to all voters.</p>
<p>As Republican lawmakers continue to enact news laws aimed at curtailing the rights of voters, secretary of state elections have taken on renewed importance.</p>
<p>We&rsquo;ve picked three key secretary of state races that we&rsquo;ll be watching closely Tuesday and added a few more influential races that are also worth keeping an eye on. (And this isn&rsquo;t even counting states like Florida and Pennsylvania, <a href="http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-secretary-state-seats-get-competitive.html"> where the secretary of state is picked by the governor</a>, leaving the gubernatorial elections will have even stronger voting rights implications.)</p>
<p><strong>Kansas</strong></p>
<p>Perhaps the hardest-fought and most-watched secretary of state race this year is taking place in the heavily Republican Kansas. And that&rsquo;s all because of the national profile and extreme agenda of one man: incumbent Secretary of State Kris Kobach.</p>
<p>When Kobach won his job in 2010, he was already a national figure. After a stint in the Bush Justice Department, Kobach joined the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) &mdash; the <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/when-mr-kobach-comes-to-town/the-man-a-biography-of-kris-kobach"> legal arm of the nativist anti-immigrant group FAIR </a> &mdash; where he worked with lawmakers to <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/when-mr-kobach-comes-to-town/the-man-a-biography-of-kris-kobach">craft harsh anti-immigrant measures throughout the country</a>, including <a href="https://www.aclu.org/immigrants-rights/anti-immigrant-ordinances-hazleton-pa">Hazleton, Pennsylvania</a>, and Arizona, where he helped write the infamous &ldquo;show me your papers&rdquo; law SB 1070. After a failed run for Congress in 2004, Kobach set his sights on his state&rsquo;s elections office.</p>
<p>Kobach has recently gained a prominent place in national Republican politics, serving as an immigration policy <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/04/17/466091/romney-disowns-kobach/">adviser</a> to Mitt Romney and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/6-right-wing-zealots-and-crazy-ideas-behind-most-outrageous-republican-platform-ever">working to insert anti-gay and anti-immigrant language </a>into the 2012 GOP platform.</p>
<p>Kobach won his position handily in 2010, but is facing an unexpectedly tough fight to hold onto it. Part of the reason is because he&rsquo;s kept up his out-of-state anti-immigrant work: He still holds a position at IRLI and jets around the country advising states and localities that have agreed to be his policy guinea pigs, prompting his critics to complain that he&rsquo;s not spending enough time in Kansas. And part of it is because he&rsquo;s brought his activism home, using his platform in Kansas to push some of the most extreme voting restrictions in the country by hyping fears that undocumented immigrants are voting en masse in Kansas.</p>
<p>In 2011, at Kobach&rsquo;s urging, Kansas passed a restrictive voter ID law that included a requirement that those registering to vote provide a passport, birth certificate, or similar &ldquo;proof of citizenship" to elections authorities. The proof-of-citizenship provision, which took effect this year, has thrown Kansas voter registration into chaos. Less than one week before the election, <a href="http://www.sunherald.com/2014/10/29/5882622/most-suspended-kansas-voters-claim.html">22,394 potential Kansas</a> voters are unable to cast ballots because they had not provided an acceptable form of citizenship documentation. In addition, Kobach has <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/nothing-see-here-alternate-reality-voter-suppression-advocates">placed an estimated 300-400 voters</a> in a special voting rights &ldquo;tier&rdquo; in which they can vote only in federal elections and not in state elections. Kobach has proudly reported that of the 200 people who were placed in this special class of disenfranchised voters in this summer's primary election, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/nothing-see-here-alternate-reality-voter-suppression-advocates">only one bothered to show up to cast a half vote</a>.</p>
<p>Kobach is also at the helm of Interstate Crosscheck, a faulty program that claims to identify people who are voting in two states at once but in reality has <a href="http://projects.aljazeera.com/2014/double-voters/">encouraged states to purge eligible minority voters from their voter rolls</a>.</p>
<p>Kansans became even more leery of Kobach&rsquo;s priorities this year when he <a href="http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/election/article3405373.html">spent $34,000 in taxpayer money</a> trying to keep a Democratic senate candidate, Chad Taylor, on the ballot after he dropped out to make way for the independent challenging Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. Kobach&nbsp;<span style="line-height: 20.3999996185303px;">only relented when the state supreme court ordered him to, and even then he tried (unsuccessfully) to find a way around the order.</span></p>
<p>A recent poll shows Kobach <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article3416971.html">tied</a> with his Democratic challenger, Jean Schodorf.</p>
<p><strong>Ohio</strong></p>
<p>In the presidential swing state of Ohio, the secretary of state is often in the center of national battles over voting rights. Republican Jon Husted has been no exception.</p>
<p>In the lead-up to the 2012 election, Husted stepped in to break tie votes in Democratic-leaning Ohio counties, allowing those counties to eliminate night and weekend early voting hours... <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/10/670441/ohio-limits-early-voting-hours-in-democratic-counties-expands-in-republican-counties/"> even as Republican-leaning counties expanded their early voting hours. </a> In response to a national outcry, Husted enforced &ldquo;uniformity&rdquo; by <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2012/08/16/699321/ohio-secretary-of-state-restricts-voting-hours-in-all-counties/">requiring all counties</a> to bring early voting opportunities down to the lowest common denominator, including cutting off night and weekend voting and eliminating early voting in the three days before the election. When a federal judge ordered Husted to reopen voting in the three days before the election, he flatly <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/09/04/793441/ohio-secretary-of-state-refuses-to-comply-with-early-voting-court-order/">refused to comply</a>, saying it would &ldquo;confuse voters.&rdquo; Eventually he relented, but as the election approached he <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/10/say-hello-to-the-ohio-official-who-might-pick-the-next-president/264201/?single_page=true"> appealed the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court</a>.</p>
<p>Since the 2012 election, Husted has kept up his efforts to restrict early voting in 2014, <a href="http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/story/news/politics/elections/2014/09/11/husted-eliminating-golden-week-protect-elections/15479303/"> fighting to eliminate </a> <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/9/30/supreme-court-helpsohiogoplimitearlyvoting.html">the so-called &ldquo;Golden Week&rdquo; of early voting</a> &mdash; in which voters can register and cast their ballots in one visit &mdash; and to <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ohio-early-voting-cuts">cut early voting hours</a>, including on Sundays, a time frequently used by African American churches for get-out-the-vote efforts.</p>
<p>Husted faces a Democrat state Sen. Nina Turner, a major critic of his record on voting rights. Although the two were <a href="http://www.plunderbund.com/2014/04/17/turner-leads-husted-in-latest-ppp-poll-for-ohio-sos-race/">neck-and-neck in an early poll</a>, a <a href="http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2014/09/15/columbus-ohio-columbus-dispatch-poll-shows-grim-news-for-ohio-democrats-with-50-days-left-until-election.html"> recent poll </a> shows Husted with a significant lead.</p>
<p><strong>Arizona</strong></p>
<p>Before Kansas ushered in its restrictive &ldquo;proof of citizenship&rdquo; law, Arizona was already fighting for a similar measure. In 2004, Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, a medley of anti-immigrant and voter suppression measures including a requirement that those registering to vote <a href="http://www.maldef.org/voting_rights/litigation/az_prop_200/">present one of a narrow set of documents</a> to prove that they are citizens. The Supreme Court struck down the provision in 2013, saying that it was <a href="http://www.wptv.com/news/national/prop-200-supreme-court-tosses-out-provision-in-arizona-law-requiring-proof-of-citizenship-to-vote"> preempted by federal law </a> &mdash; but <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=59556">left a loophole</a>, suggesting that Arizona could sue the federal Election Assistance Commission to require that federal voter registration forms used in the state include the extra &ldquo;proof of citizenship&rdquo; requirement. So <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/?p=59556">Arizona did just that</a>, joined by Kansas under Kobach.</p>
<p>That case is still working its way through the courts, but it&rsquo;s left a peculiar situation in Kansas and Arizona where Kobach and his Arizona counterpart Secretary of State Ken Bennett have set up dual-track voting systems in their states in which people who register to vote with a federal form but do not provide additional citizenship documents are allowed to vote in federal elections, but not in state elections. As we noted above, of about 200 Kansans on the special limited-rights voting track in this year&rsquo;s primary election, just one voted. In Arizona, <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/08/25/dual-track-voting-single-choice/14551085/">about 1,500</a> were put on the limited track, and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/8/just-21-arizona-voters-used-new-two-tier-system/">21 cast ballots</a>.</p>
<p>Bennett isn&rsquo;t up for reelection this year &mdash; he unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor &mdash; but the race to succeed him will determine the future implementation of Arizona&rsquo;s restrictive requirements. Republican Michele Reagan <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/ejmontini/2014/09/22/michele-reagan-russell-pearce-jan-brewer-sb1070-secretary-of-state-kris-kobach/16062211/"> sought and won Kobach&rsquo;s endorsement</a>, boasting that she <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/politicalinsider/2014/06/17/arizona-secretary-state-kobach-endorsement/10674329/"> voted for the infamous anti-immigrant bill </a> that Kobach helped bring to Arizona. In the state senate, Reagan wrote a bill that, <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20140227election-law-foes-decry-ballot-move.html">among other voting restrictions</a>, would prevent community groups from collecting and delivering mail-in ballots, a method <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/arizona-bill-targets-early-ballots-key-to-latino-turnout.html"> commonly used in voting drives by Latino groups</a>. When an effort to repeal the bill by referendum started to gain steam, Reagan and her fellow Republicans <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/politics/articles/20140227election-law-foes-decry-ballot-move.html">worked to repeal it first</a>, thus allowing the state legislature to bring back parts of the bill in a piecemeal fashion.</p>
<p>Reagan is facing off against Democrat Terry Goddard, a former state attorney general and mayor of Phoenix. Both candidates have <a href="http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2014/10/24/secretary-of-state-candidates-seek-more-dark-money-disclosure/"> said they want tighter disclosure requirements </a> for &ldquo;dark money&rdquo; spending by outside groups. But when the Koch-backed 60 Plus Association <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2014/10/25/dark-money-rises-race-focused-anonymous-spending/17892263/">bought $304,000 in ads attacking Goddard</a> last week, she <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/story/politicalinsider/2014/10/28/reagan-sets-conditions-renouncing-dark-money/18083393/"> refused to distance herself </a> from the dark money effort.</p>
<p>Reagan also <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/michele-reagan-birther-bill-explanation">struggled</a> this week to explain her vote for Arizona&rsquo;s so-called &ldquo;birther bill,&rdquo; which would have required presidential candidates to prove to the secretary of state that they are native-born American citizens.</p>
<p><strong>Other States To Watch: Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa</strong></p>
<p>In Colorado, Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler &mdash; a <a href="http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2014/02/25/pac-seeks-influence-in-secretary-of-state-races-aims-to-suppress-votes/">key Kobach ally</a> and crusader against the supposed scourge of Democratic &ldquo;<a href="http://www.coloradoindependent.com/125286/gessler-accuses-left-of-organized-voter-fraud-even-as-colorado-da-launches-investigation-of-gop-linked-registration-firm">organized voter fraud</a>&rdquo; who last year&nbsp;<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/ci_22421027/colorado-judge-denies-scott-gessler-inactive-voters">tried to stop county clerks</a> from sending ballots to voters who had not voted in the the last election &mdash; is stepping down this year, having tried and failed to get his party&rsquo;s gubernatorial nomination. In the race to replace him are Republican El Paso County Clerk Wayne Williams, <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/election2014/ci_26811644/turnout-may-determine-williams-neguse-race">described by the Denver Post</a> as Gessler&rsquo;s &ldquo;lone public ally&rdquo; among clerks in the ballot controversy, and Democratic attorney Joe Neguse. The two&nbsp;<a href="http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_26734632/joe-neguse-colorado-secretary-state">differ</a> on the <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_23217493/hickenlooper-signs-colo-election-rules-overhaul">sweeping elections overhaul</a> Colorado passed last year, which allows same-day voter registration and requires the state to mail a ballot to every voter.</p>
<p>New Mexico&rsquo;s secretary of state race has incumbent Republican Dianna Duran pitted against Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver, a&nbsp;<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/women-candidates-watch-2014-maggie-toulouse-oliver">rising Democratic star</a>. Toulouse Oliver is <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/women-candidates-watch-2014-maggie-toulouse-oliver">emphasizing</a> &ldquo;full participation across a wide spectrum of the electorate&rdquo; in her campaign, while Durran is <a href="http://www.diannaduran.com/issues.aspx">accusing her</a> of using &ldquo;community-organizer, consultant-styled rhetoric.&rdquo; In a <a href="http://progressnownm.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/dianna-durans-new-ad-ignores-one-very-important-fact/"> TV ad that doubles as a promotion for right-wing myths </a> about widespread voter fraud, Durran accuses Toulous Oliver of &ldquo;registering a dog to vote.&rdquo; In reality, a right-wing activist tried to register his dog to try to prove a point; he was caught and Toulouse Oliver <a href="http://progressnownm.wordpress.com/2014/10/26/dianna-durans-new-ad-ignores-one-very-important-fact/"> referred his case to the proper authorities</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, the Arkansas Supreme Court <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/us/arkansas-supreme-court-strikes-down-voter-id-law-saying-it-exceeds-state-constitution.html"> struck down the state&rsquo;s voter ID requirement</a>, a ruling that Secretary of State Mark Martin is <a href="http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2014/10/16/what-will-mark-martin-do">vowing to fight</a>. As the case worked its way through the courts, Arkansas voters got <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/arkansas-voter-id-law-causes-chaos">conflicting messages</a> from elections officials under Martin&rsquo;s leadership. He faces a challenge from Democrat Susan Inman.</p>
<p>In Iowa, outgoing Secretary of State Matt Schultz spent $150,000 in taxpayer money in a quest to root out voter fraud in Iowa&hellip;<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/iowa-voter-fraud_n_4455110.html">and found none</a>. He also conducted a voter roll purge that critics called an attempt to &nbsp;<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/activists-ask-iowa-judge-to-stop-purge-of-non-citizens-from-voter-rolls">intimidate Latino voters</a>.&rdquo; The <a href="http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/politics/election/state-elections/loras-poll-shows-close-race-for-secretary-of-state-20141030"> race to succeed him </a> &mdash; between Republican voter ID supporter Paul Pate and Democrat Brad Anderson &mdash; is <a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/2014/10/15/iowa-suffolk-poll-statehouse/17305291/">locked in a dead heat</a>.</p>
Miranda BlueArizonaArkansasC4ColoradoDianna DuranElection 2014IowaJon HustedKansasKen BennettKris Kobach Matt SchultzMichele ReaganNew MexicoOhioPaul PateScott GesslerVoting RightsWayne WilliamsFighting the RightThe Right to Vote48879Fri, 31 Oct 2014 14:55:09 -0500IowaSteve King Stands By Remark On Gays And Heaven, Even Though It Was 'Fabricated' By People Who Are Going To Hellhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-king-stands-remark-gays-and-heaven-even-though-it-was-fabricated-people-who-are-going-
<p>In an <a href="http://www.beeherald.com/news/king-gays-%E2%80%98i-don%E2%80%99t-expect-meet-them-should-i-make-it-heaven%E2%80%99"> interview with an Iowa newspaper </a> this week, Rep. Steve King suggested that gay people as well as those who are divorced and cohabiting will have unfavorable prospects in the afterlife, saying, &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll just say that what was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today, and people that were condemned to hell 2,000 years ago, I don&rsquo;t expect to meet them should I make it to Heaven.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The comment was quickly picked up by outlets like&nbsp;<a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/steve-king-i-dont-expect-to-meet-gays-in-heaven">Talking Points Memo</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/2014/10/24/tea_party_congressman_steve_king_is_pretty_sure_that_gay_people_are_going_to_hell/">Salon</a>, so when King visited the &ldquo;Steve Malzberg Show&rdquo; today, Malzberg <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90alYUKQfOo&list=UUx6h-dWzJ5NpAlja1YsApdg">gave him the opportunity</a> to clarify his comments.</p>
<p>In response, King simultaneously stood by what he said and claimed that the story was &ldquo;false&rdquo; and had been &ldquo;fabricated.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;What I said was it&rsquo;s between them and God. And I said what was a sin 2,000 years ago is a sin today. That was what I said. And I stand on what I said, and they&rsquo;ve manufactured this,&rdquo; he insisted.</p>
<p>He added a dig at the people who had reported the story: &ldquo;So maybe I won&rsquo;t meet the people who distort the truth in the next life either, and I&rsquo;m going to do my best to get to Heaven.&rdquo;</p>
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Miranda BlueAnti-GayC4Equality For AllIowaNewsmaxSteve King Steve MalzbergFighting the Right48786Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:14:29 -0500IowaSteve King Threatens Government Shutdown, Impeachment Over Immigration Executive Actionhttp://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-king-threatens-government-shutdown-impeachment-over-immigration-executive-action
<p>In an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az20ZBJ1WM8&list=UUx6h-dWzJ5NpAlja1YsApdg">interview</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRhi_JpqZY&list=UUx6h-dWzJ5NpAlja1YsApdg">with Newsmax</a> today, Rep. Steve King warned that an executive action by President Obama providing deportation relief for some undocumented immigrants living in the United States would perhaps irrevocably destroy &ldquo;our constitutional republic&rdquo; by turning the United States into a &ldquo;lawless third-world nation&rdquo; and Obama into a &ldquo;king.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;If the American people take that sitting down or lying down, then our constitutional republic has been destroyed to the point where putting it back together again in our lifetime looks to me like it&rsquo;s a very difficult task,&rdquo; he warned, adding that anti-immigrant demonstrators should &ldquo;surround the White House&rdquo; and &ldquo;protest outside the gates of the president&rsquo;s residence until he lets go of this unconstitutional action.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The Iowa Republican added that if Obama were to take executive action, he would force a government shutdown and move to impeach the president.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We know there is the &lsquo;I-word&rsquo; in the Constitution that none of us want to say or act on but I would have never had said there will be no boots on the ground, so in this context, everything is on the table because our republic is on the table, our constitutional republic is on the table,&rdquo; he said.</p>
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Miranda BlueC4ImmigrationIowaNewsmaxSteve King Fighting the Right48743Wed, 22 Oct 2014 11:31:48 -0500IowaSteve King: US Becoming A 'Third-World Country' Thanks To Undocumented Immigrants Bringing In Ebola And Beheadingshttp://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-king-warns-us-becoming-third-world-country-thanks-undocumented-immigrants-bringing-ebo
<p>Donald Trump travelled to Iowa to campaign for Rep. Steve King this past weekend, and their joint press conference was just about as ridiculous as you might imagine.</p>
<p>The two <a href="http://theiowarepublican.com/2014/donald-trump-and-steve-king-kindred-spirits/">heaped praise on one another</a>, with Trump calling King &ldquo;a special guy&rdquo; and &ldquo;a smart person with really the right views on almost everything&rdquo; and King gushing that &ldquo;time after time, when the hand of Donald Trump reached out and touched something, it turned into something good for America.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And they tried to outdo each other with criticism of President Obama, as Trump evaded questions about his own plans to run for president&nbsp;<a href="http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/kathie-obradovich/2014/10/18/donald-trump-next-president-needs-to-be-a-great-one/17521583/">while blaming Obama </a> for such offenses as turning major U.S. airports into &ldquo;third-world airports.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But it was King who really took the opportunity to shine. In video <a href="http://theiowarepublican.com/2014/donald-trump-and-steve-king-kindred-spirits/">captured by the Iowa Republican</a>, King went on a long tirade claiming that America is becoming &ldquo;a third-world country&rdquo; because of &ldquo;the things that are coming at us from across the border,&rdquo; including illegal drugs, Central American children of &ldquo;prime gang recruitment age,&rdquo; <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/oct/10/duncan-hunter-2/duncan-hunter-makes-unconfirmed-claim-border-patro/"> ISIS</a>, a childhood respiratory illness that has spread in recent weeks, and the Ebola virus.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2014/oct/10/duncan-hunter-2/duncan-hunter-makes-unconfirmed-claim-border-patro/">ISIS</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/citing-zero-evidence-right-wing-media-blames-respiratory-disease-outbreak-migrant-kids"> respiratory disease </a> claims are based on unsubstantiated reports in the right-wing media, while there is absolutely no link between border enforcement and Ebola or the Oklahoma beheading incident.</p>
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<p>Later, in response to a question about President Obama&rsquo;s supposed penchant for golf, King mused on how President Obama wants &ldquo;to treat people in Africa as if they were American citizens.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;What is his vision for this country?&rdquo; he asked. &ldquo;He must think now that he&rsquo;s president of the world, that he&rsquo;s going to treat people in Africa as if they were American citizens and somehow we can&rsquo;t define this American sovereignty or American citizenship.&rdquo;</p>
<p>He went on to accuse the president of causing racial division in America &mdash; &ldquo;he has pitted people against each other down the lines of divisions that are God-given characteristics&rdquo; &mdash; while touting his own credentials as a unifier:</p>
<p>&ldquo;I want to pull us all together under those principles to build America. That&rsquo;s freedom of speech, religion, the press, the right to keep and bear arms &mdash; whether that&rsquo;s to pick up a shotgun and shoot a pheasant or pick up a seven iron and discipline your husband.&rdquo;</p>
Miranda BlueC4Donald TrumpImmigrationIowaSteve King Fighting the Right48729Tue, 21 Oct 2014 14:12:50 -0500IowaPeroutka: Nondiscrimination Laws Plot To Replace God With Government 'Idolatry'http://www.pfaw.org/content/peroutka-nondiscrimination-laws-plot-replace-god-government-idolatry
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<p>The Institute on the Constitution&rsquo;s Michael Peroutka was a&nbsp;<a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-10-15-14/">guest on Steve Deace&rsquo;s radio program on Wednesday</a>, where the two obviously discussed <a href="http://religiondispatches.org/houstons-pastor-subpoenas-a-meme-made-for-fox-news/">the latest Religious Right controversy brewing in Houston</a>.</p>
<p>Deace declared that nondiscrimination laws like the one in Houston and transgender nondiscrimination laws being considered throughout the country are ultimately meant to &ldquo;silence the church&rdquo; and elevate government to the level of God.</p>
<p>Lawmakers, Deace argued, are &ldquo;using sexual perversity and immorality as the means to silence the church so that there is no institution capable of challenging the supremacy of the state.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Peroutka &mdash; who is also a GOP candidate for a county office in Maryland &mdash; agreed, saying &ldquo;If you believe that you are God, as government has proved over and over again that it believes it is&hellip;you don&rsquo;t want there to be another God, you don&rsquo;t want anybody to have an allegiance to the one true and living God, the God of the Bible whose son is Jesus Christ, because if that exists it is the enemy of your own idolatry.&rdquo;</p>
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Miranda BlueAnti-GayC4Equality For AllInstitute on the ConstitutionIowaMarylandMichael PeroutkaSteve DeaceFighting the Right48691Fri, 17 Oct 2014 10:35:14 -0500IowaMichael Peroutka: Gay 'Deathstyle' Wants To 'Recruit Your Children'http://www.pfaw.org/content/michael-peroutka-gay-deathstyle-wants-recruit-your-children
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<p>In an <a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-10-07-14/">interview</a> with Steve Deace yesterday, Institute on the Constitution head and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/gop-candidate-michael-peroutka-fails-shake-extremist-label-not-racist-press-conference"> Maryland GOP politician Michael Peroutka </a> claimed that the aim of LGBT rights advocates is to &ldquo;recruit your children&rdquo; into their &ldquo;deathstyle.&rdquo;</p>
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<p>&ldquo;Is this about sinful people want to engage in their sin, or is this about making a statement that you will go along with the sin?&rdquo; Peroutka asked about the LGBT rights movement.</p>
<p>Deace responded by <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/steve-deace-gay-rights-advocates-seek-validation-through-marriage-and-pro-sodomy-propaganda"> repeating his theory </a> that LGBT people are simply seeking &ldquo;validation&rdquo; from the government because they can&rsquo;t get it from God, adding: &ldquo;We have two moral vices that have a powerful political lobby in America. One is sexually driven and the other one&rsquo;s driven on covetousness, that&rsquo;s the welfare state and victimology.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Deace fretted that as part of this agenda, the gay rights movement is turning &ldquo;ESPN into <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/05/10/michael_sam_kiss_the_st_louis_rams_pick_the_openly_gay_missouri_star_in.html"> homosexual cake-smash make-out sessions.&rdquo; </a></p>
<p>&ldquo;It seems to me that the reason that it&rsquo;s got to be validated, perversion has to be validated, because recruitment is necessary,&rdquo; Peroutka added. &ldquo;This deathstyle &mdash; I don&rsquo;t call it a lifestyle &mdash; this deathstyle does not reproduce, it needs to recruit, so it&rsquo;s got to recruit your children.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Earlier in the interview, Deace said that governors should just ignore court rulings that they disagree with &mdash; such as marriage equality and legalized abortion &mdash;saying that if he were governor he would have shut down every abortion clinic in the state &ldquo;and arrested every employee for killing, every single one of them.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Nazis, everything they did was technically legal too,&rdquo; he said.</p>
Miranda BlueAnti-ChoiceAnti-GayC4Election 2014Equality For AllInstitute on the ConstitutionIowaMarriage EqualityMarriage EqualityMarylandMichael PeroutkaReproductive HealthSteve DeaceFighting the Right48598Wed, 08 Oct 2014 11:39:01 -0500IowaSteve Deace: Gay Rights Advocates Seek 'Validation' Through Marriage And 'Pro-Sodomy Propaganda'http://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-deace-gay-rights-advocates-seek-validation-through-marriage-and-pro-sodomy-propaganda
<img class="imagefield imagefield-field_teaser_astory" width="390" height="250" alt="" src="http://www.pfaw.org/sites/default/files/images/a_story_rww/Steve_Deace.jpg?1408642110" />
<p>Conservative talk show host Steve Deace was, to say the least, livid at the news this week that the Supreme Court declined to hear appeals of a number of lower-court marriage equality rulings, thus allowing same-sex couples in several new states to begin marrying.</p>
<p>Deace spent a good part of his<a href="http://stevedeace.com/podcast/deace-show-podcast-10-06-14/"> interview Monday</a> with Religious Right activist Bob Vander Plaats railing against the LGBT rights movement, which he declared is &ldquo;not about &lsquo;I want to visit people I love in a hospital&rsquo; or &lsquo;I want to pass on to people I care about an inheritance&rsquo;&rdquo; but is instead about a search for &ldquo;validation and &lsquo;I want someone to validate my desires that my conscience tells me are wrong, that my conscience tells me go against the way I was made.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;&lsquo;To validate these desires and impulses that I don&rsquo;t think I can control, and I want you to tell me that I&rsquo;m okay just the way I am,&rsquo;&rdquo; he continued, in the voice of an imaginary gay-rights activist. &ldquo;&lsquo;And if the God who made me, who I ultimately desire validation from&hellip;if that God will not validate me, then I will go to the next most powerful force on earth and try to get them to do it, and that is government.&rsquo;&rdquo;</p>
<p>He added that &ldquo;the onslaught of pro-sodomy propaganda in our culture&rdquo; is yet another step in this search for validation: &ldquo;You will be made to care when your kids watch the Disney Channel. You will be made to care when you watch ESPN. There is nowhere for you to go. Consider the onslaught of pro-sodomy propaganda our culture has been deluged with and the numbers in that Pew research poll. There&rsquo;s a backlash.&rdquo; (He was referring to a<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/is-support-for-gay-marriage-dropping-dont-count-on-it/381030/"> recent Pew poll </a>showing a downtick in support for marriage equality.)</p>
<p>Vander Plaats agreed with Deace&rsquo;s assessment: &ldquo;This isn&rsquo;t about Mary and Susy having a garden next door anymore. This is about saturating every piece of life with this very issue for what you talk about, and I think you&rsquo;re right, Steve: validation.&rdquo;</p>
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Miranda BlueAnti-GayBob Vander PlaatsC4Equality For AllIowaMarriage EqualityMarriage EqualitySteve DeaceSupreme CourtThe Family Leader48594Wed, 08 Oct 2014 09:33:00 -0500IowaRNC Committeewoman Warns Muslim Refugees Waging 'Stealth Jihad' Against Americahttp://www.pfaw.org/content/rnc-committeewoman-warns-muslim-refugees-waging-stealth-jihad-against-america
<p>RNC committeewoman Tamara Scott, who also runs the Iowa state chapter of Concerned Women for America and works with the influential group The Family Leader, spent a good part of her weekly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFt4E9pxQ9k&list=UUCPbMj25YJRB-PMRzz5GuHQ">radio program</a> on Wednesday interviewing Leo Hohmann, a WorldNetDaily reporter who wrote an <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/anti-muslim-activists-syrian-refugees-part-stealth-jihad-plot-take-over-america">unhinged article</a> last month about how a plan to offer asylum to Syrian refugees is in fact part of a &ldquo;stealth jihad&rdquo; to take over America.</p>
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<p>Scott was quite impressed by Hohmann&rsquo;s article, asking him, &ldquo;So if I put on my Facebook&hellip; &lsquo;Leo Hohman reveals stealth jihad with thousands of Muslims being brought into the U.S. under refugee resettlement program, receiving welfare, Medicaid and other taxpayer moneys while refusing to assimilate to American culture,&rsquo; that&rsquo;s not an understandment?&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;No,&rdquo; Hohmann assured her.</p>
<p>Later in the interview, Hohmann explained the difficulty he has in his &ldquo;reporting&rdquo; because &ldquo;if you&rsquo;re not listening carefully or if you come to this story from a different worldview, it can sound like we&rsquo;re being racist or somehow bigoted.&rdquo; But, he explained, he isn&rsquo;t being bigoted because Islam is not a religion and Muslim-Americans are lying about their plan to become the majority in America and institute Sharia law.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The problem is, Leo, is that we call it a religion, but you and I both know that it&rsquo;s a political system and a military system, not just a religion, so that&rsquo;s part of the danger,&rdquo; Scott said of Islam later in the interview.</p>
<p>She then went on to praise Michele Bachmann&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-obama-spit-constitution-muslim-brotherhood-penetrated-government"> furious search for Muslim Brotherhood agents </a> in the U.S. government, which she implied was somehow precient of the 2012 attack on U.S. officials in Benghazi.</p>
Miranda BlueAnti-MuslimC4ImmigrationIowaLeo Hohmannrepublican national committee Tamara ScottThe Family LeaderWorldNetDaily Concerned Women for AmericaFighting the RightReligious Liberty48545Fri, 03 Oct 2014 10:01:02 -0500IowaSteve Deace Heroically Tries To Save Fellow Airplane Passengers From 'Lesbian Make-Out Attempt’http://www.pfaw.org/content/steve-deace-heroically-tries-save-fellow-airplane-passengers-lesbian-make-out-attempt
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<p>It wasn&rsquo;t too long ago that the Catholic Family Human Rights Institute&rsquo;s Austin Ruse was <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/nothing-safe-austin-ruse-upset-he-had-see-lesbian-food-network"> forced to see a lesbian couple call each other &ldquo;wife&rdquo; on the Food Network</a>. Now another right-wing activist has reported a harrowing brush with gay people on television.</p>
<p>Iowa-based talk show host Steve Deace wrote on Twitter this morning:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>So I'm on an <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericanAir">@AmericanAir</a> flight and the inflight TV show for all to see just had a seen of a grown woman kissing a teenage girl.</p>
&mdash; Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/509737722911924224">September 10, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<p>A few minutes later he tweeted again about the &ldquo;lesbian make out attempt&rdquo; he had been forced to witness:</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p>Lesbian make out attempt on in-flight TV show on <a href="https://twitter.com/AmericanAir">@AmericanAir</a> flight from D.C to Chicago = You will be made to care, even at 30,000 feet.</p>
&mdash; Steve Deace (@SteveDeaceShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/509739761524039680">September 10, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<p>American Airlines responded to both of Deace&rsquo;s tweets, promising to &ldquo;forward&rdquo; his &ldquo;concerns,&rdquo; at which point Deace <a href="https://www.facebook.com/StevenDeace/posts/10202623393531010">took to Facebook to congratulate himself</a> as a lone protector of liberty on a flight full of moral cowards:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now, this is a full-flight, and I'm sure I'm not the only person that finds this programming objectionable. So why was I the only one to say something? When you find the answer to that you'll discover a major reason why we are in the shape we are in as a people. Of course, all those who remained silent now will come to people like me later and ask us to defend them when it's their liberty on the line. Funny how that works.</p>
</blockquote>
Miranda BlueAnti-GayC4Equality For AllIowaSteve DeaceFighting the Right48255Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:18:16 -0500IowaGOP Committeewoman Warns Child Migrants 'Highly Trained As Warriors,' Could 'Rise Up Against Us As Americans'http://www.pfaw.org/content/gop-committeewoman-warns-child-migrants-highly-trained-warriors-who-will-rise-against-us-ame
<p>On her weekly radio show yesterday, <a href="http://www.gop.com/members/iowa/tamara-scott/">RNC committeewoman Tamara Scott of Iowa</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yopu1FYJ3P8&list=UUCPbMj25YJRB-PMRzz5GuHQ">warned</a> that child migrants from Central America may have been &ldquo;highly trained as warriors&rdquo; and could &ldquo;rise up against&rdquo; U.S. citizens.</p>
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<p>&ldquo;When we see these kids, you and I think young kids, we think maybe 12-year-olds, maybe homeschoolers &mdash; excuse me, middle-schoolers,&rdquo; said Scott, who is also <a href="http://www.cwfa.org/states/iowa/">Concerned Women for American&rsquo;s Iowa state director</a> and works as a <a href="https://coolice.legis.iowa.gov/cool-ice/default.asp?Category=Matt&Service=Declarations&frame=2&lobbyist=2546&sort=Bill&lname=%3Clname%3E">lobbyist for the conservative group The Family Leader</a>. &ldquo;But we know back in our revolution, we had 12-year-olds fighting in our revolution. And for many of these kids, depending on where they&rsquo;re coming from, they could be coming from other countries and be highly trained as warriors who will meet up with their group here and actually rise up against us as Americans.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Mary Huls, leader of a Texas-based Tea Party group, agreed, warning that the children could have been trained in Venezuela to work for Hezbollah or Hamas (never mind that most of the children <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/07/01/dhs-violence-poverty-is-driving-children-to-flee-central-america-to-u-s/">are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador</a>). &ldquo;They are being trained as warriors, you&rsquo;re absolutely right,&rdquo; she said.</p>
Miranda BlueC4ImmigrationIowarepublican national committee Tamara ScottThe Family LeaderConcerned Women for AmericaFighting the Right48034Fri, 22 Aug 2014 08:54:49 -0500Iowa